


The Keys of Paradise

by BlueTwilight



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-25 20:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4974148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueTwilight/pseuds/BlueTwilight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of snapshots showing important milestones in Steven's development. Mostly pre-series, all canon-compliant as far as I know.</p><p>"Children are the keys of paradise." -Eric Hoffer</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Endure the Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this weird idea to use Steven Universe as a way to study for my developmental psychology class. I'm going to use Steven as an example for some of these concepts we're learning about, and the hope is I'll understand them better after I've applied them. Each chapter will have something I've learned from class in it, but don't worry, you don't need to know anything about psychology to understand this fic! I'm hoping you won't even notice that I'm slipping educational tidbits in here. If you happen to know something about developmental psych and you see something that's inaccurate, please let me know!

It was a painfully average morning in Beach City. The early morning fog was beginning to lift, giving way to a partly cloudy sky. The sand was moist underfoot; still damp from last night’s steady rainshower. The residents of the small tourist town were beginning to wake and open their shops. On this day, seagulls flew overhead, waves lapped lazily at the shore, and the baby turned one month old.

Garnet walked down the beach, taking a winding path to Greg’s car wash that avoided the boardwalk. It had been a difficult month, to put it mildly. The longest month of her long life, and yet there were still no signs of improvement. Rose’s death had hit everyone hard, especially because it had been so senseless. They’d all tried to reason with Rose, even pleaded with her near the end, but nothing they said would have dissuaded her from having her child. Garnet knew this from the beginning, and yet still, she’d tried. 

It was hard to tell who was taking this transition the hardest, Amethyst or Pearl. Amethyst was so upset, she’d run away before the baby’s birth, and still had yet to return. Once everything settled down, she would come to regret missing Rose’s last days. Garnet didn’t need future vision to know that. But, where Amethyst tended to retreat away from people when she was upset, Pearl only clung tighter. And, since she was irrationally angry with Greg, Garnet was the only one around for her to hold on to. Garnet hadn’t anticipated just how emotionally exhausting it would be to look after Pearl; she’d never had the same patience for Pearl’s clinginess that Rose used to have, but she was trying to be there for her friend, like their leader would’ve wanted her to be. 

On top of all of this, there were still corrupted gems running rampant all over the earth, and it was now up to Garnet to bubble the ones causing trouble. This meant that she had to disappear occasionally, which meant that Pearl was left alone in the temple, which made her even more frazzled. She was alternatively upset with Garnet for appearing to move on so quickly from Rose’s death, and dependant on her friend’s continued stoicism to help her through her own turbulent emotions. It was, to put it succinctly, absolutely exhausting.

In the aftermath of Rose’s death, none of the gems had felt much up to paying a social visit to Greg and the baby. Pearl, especially, was adamantly against it. So much as mentioning Greg’s name this morning had earned Garnet a disapproving scowl, so she’d elected not to tell Pearl where she was going when she’d left the temple. Because, like it or not, someone had to check up on Greg and the boy eventually, and it was obviously not going to be Amethyst or Pearl. 

Garnet had a feeling she’d be doing a lot of things she didn’t want to do in the coming years, and this was just one of many.

It wasn’t that she blamed the child for his mother’s death. Logically, she knew that the boy was entirely innocent. But just the thought of seeing Rose’s gem imbedded in someone else’s stomach was enough to make Garnet feel slightly nauseous. And, even if it weren’t for his association with Rose, Garnet simply didn’t know how to act around human children. There was nothing equivalent to infancy in a gem’s lifecycle, so Garnet had no experience to draw from. This visit was bound to be awkward and unpleasant, but there was no getting around it. She would get past this, just as Pearl and Amethyst would come around, in time.

Greg was exactly where Garnet knew he would be; sitting on the bumper of his van, which was parked in front of the car wash. He was holding a white bundle in his arms, but the baby was mostly obscured from view by Greg’s slowly-receding hair. Garnet walked right up to Greg, who didn’t notice her approach until her shadow fell over him. He jumped, startled, and yelped,

“JEEZE, oh man, don’t sneak up on people like that!” Once he’d looked at her, Garnet saw the dark circles under the new father’s eyes. There was a pale pallor to his skin that definitely hadn’t been there a month ago, and a weariness in the way he held himself that Garnet couldn’t quite pinpoint. She should’ve come by sooner, that much was plain.

“You need help. You should’ve come by the temple.” Garnet sat next to Greg without waiting to be invited. She spoke to Greg, but her concealed eyes were fixed on the bundle of blankets, still shrouded by Greg’s hair. “You’re going to smother him.” It wasn’t true; the baby could breathe fine, but Garnet selfishly wanted to see the child’s face. Greg stared at her for a moment, baffled, before jumping into action.

“Oh! Yeah, right.” He flipped his hair over his shoulder, finally giving Garnet her first look at Rose’s son. She had to admit, it was rather anticlimactic. The baby was ugly, to put it bluntly. His skin was wrinkled, his body an off-pink color, and his face was pinched in a permanent scowl. Weren’t human children supposed to be an amalgam of their parents? This child didn’t look anything like Rose… or Greg, for that matter.

“I, uh, didn’t think I’d be welcome. At the temple.” Garnet was so enraptured by the baby, she didn’t even acknowledge Greg. The more she stared at the child, the less unappealing he seemed. Removed so suddenly from the cover of Greg’s hair, the infant was roused from his rest. His little eyes blinked open sleepily, and he fussed a bit under his blanket. Garnet indulged her curiosity and peered into the future, just to see if he would grow into his wrinkly skin. He would, of course, and he’d soon start to grow a mop of curly hair, too. That made Garnet smile faintly.

“Do you… wanna hold him?” Suddenly, the baby was thrust toward her, and Garnet shrunk back in a rare show of uncertainty. 

“No, I-I don’t think so.” The child looked up at her and wriggled more vigorously, successfully freeing one of his arms. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to hold him; she did, but he was just _so_ small. Now that she had started using her future vision, it was hard to stop, and there were so, so many ways she could hurt him. It was best not to risk it. Greg looked strangely disappointed as he brought the child back to his lap.

“Alright, maybe later. Aw, jeeze, he got one of his arms loose again. You little rascal!” He chuckled affectionately and tickled the baby under his chin, earning him what sounded like a happy gurgle in response. 

Garnet felt a strange sense of loss. She leaned in toward the father and son, all three eyes still fixated on the child. While Greg was distracted with trying to make the baby laugh (he wouldn’t be successful for another two months, she already knew) Garnet slowly reached for the little hand that was stretched out to the side. It was so small; the pad of just one of her fingers could cover the baby’s hand. 

She stroked his palm gently with the tip of her finger, shocked and a little proud when his fingers curled tightly around hers. Garnet grunted in surprise, alerting Greg to the situation. He smiled broadly,

“Ha! I think he likes you.” The child’s grip was surprisingly strong; Garnet suspected she could lift him into a sitting position without breaking his hold. This could’ve been a problem, though, if she ever wanted her hand back.

“How do you get the baby to let go?” She asked, finally breaking her eye contact with the boy to look up at Greg imploringly. He gave her a quizzical look, then said with a soft smile,

“Y’know, he has a name.” Garnet blinked behind her visor. She hadn’t really let herself think of the child as a person; someone real, tangible, and entirely separate from Rose. Until now.

“Right. Steven.” She wriggled her finger in his grasp, but he only held on tighter. It was fine, though. Steven could have her hand, he could have everything she had to give.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter: the Darwinian reflex


	2. Mask Island Clean-Up Crew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the gems fight a monster that spits toxic goo, Steven tries to help out, but makes a mistake and has to clean up his mess. Takes place just before Stevenbomb 3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this one got long! I should mention that these chapters will be wildly inconsistent in length, and will also not be in chronological order.

“Pearl! Look out!” Steven shouted from the sidelines as Pearl narrowly avoided being pummeled by one of the gem monster’s many fists. He cringed when, in an effort to avoid the attack, Pearl threw herself into a puddle of the monster’s green goo. 

“Ugh! It’s so… _disgusting_ ” She tried to wipe the slime off of her gem, but it was no use. As Amethyst had already found out a minute ago, the goo was too sticky to simply be wiped clean. Garnet was at Pearl’s side instantly, yanking her out of the goo puddle as Amethyst distracted the monster with her whip.

“Uh-oh.” The purple gem groaned when the beast snapped her whip in its teeth. Ordinarily, she would have just summoned a new weapon, but she couldn’t with the goo covering the gem on her chest. Pearl had tried to explain the goo’s gem-interfering properties to Steven earlier, but he hadn’t been able to follow her explanation. All he knew now was that Amethyst was essentially weaponless, and Pearl was now down to her last spear. Only Garnet remained untouched by the goo, but her gauntlets were mostly ineffective against the monster’s heavy armour.

“Uh, this is a little tougher than I thought it’d be! Garnet, shouldn’t we retreat?” Amethyst’s question went unanswered as the beast refocused its attention on Garnet, who was now the biggest threat. The fusion was forced to abandon her attempts at freeing Pearl, instead raising her gauntleted fists to block the monster’s attack. Unfortunately, this also meant dropping Pearl back into the goo puddle in the process.

“YEEEK! Garnet! Was that really necessary?!” As the battle waged on, Steven looked around frantically. The gems were losing… he had to find some way to help! But, being on the shore of Mask Island, there weren’t exactly a lot of weapons to choose from. Unless…

Remembering back to the last time he encountered a monster on this island, Steven grabbed the pointiest stick he could find. As the monster reared up to strike Garnet, Steven noticed a vulnerable spot under its neck that wasn’t covered by armour. It looked like a sac of some sort, pulsating and neon green. Without thinking twice about it, the boy let out a primal roar and threw his makeshift spear at the beast’s neck.

The monster let out a powerful, wretched shriek when the weapon hit its mark. It reared its head back, dislodging the spear and spraying an explosion of green goo everywhere. Steven just managed to shield his face with his arms before the goo descended on them all. Sadly, that also meant he didn’t get to see the last half of the monster’s epic death, but he did peer through his fingers just in time to see it poof. There was a moment of stunned silence, before Pearl came to her senses and yelled,

“STEVEN! I told you, we were trying _not_ to rupture the parotid gland! Weren’t you listening to me?!” 

“Uhhh….” Steven slowly lowered his arms and scanned the beach, now more covered in green goo than yellow sand. He touched his hair, which was all sticky and gross, and stared at Garnet as she sheathed her gauntlets and bubbled the monster’s fallen gem. He shook his head vigorously, “No!” Pearl let out an exaggerated sigh and tugged at her own leg, which only caused it to sink further into the goo. The comical sight knocked Amethyst out of her stunned reverie, and, much to Pearl’s irritation, she burst out laughing.

“Knock it off! At least _I_ didn’t break my weapon!” Steven looked over at Pearl’s spear, which was lying on the ground, just out of reach of its owner. Amethyst roared, her mirth only increasing as the adrenaline from the fight wore off. After sending the corrupted gem safely back to the temple, Garnet wordlessly grabbed Pearl under her arms and, with a great heave, tugged her out of the goo. Pearl yelped, half out of surprise and half out of indignation. “I could’ve gotten out eventually,” she huffed, her cheeks turning dark blue. Steven ran over to the gems, dodging clumps of goo along the way. As soon as he reached her, he wrapped his arms around Pearl, who grunted in surprise.

“It’s okay, Pearl! We all need help sometimes.” He squeezed her tighter, but felt a stab of betrayal when she pried him off of her.

“Oooooh no you don’t! Don’t go hugging me, you’re in a lot of trouble!” Amethyst sauntered over as Steven pouted. She tried licking some of the goo off of her fingers, but it stuck to her digits persistently.

“Aw, lay off, Pearl! Sure, the island’s covered in toxic goo and it’s all Steven’s fault, but it’s not like anyone ever comes to this crummy place, anyway!” Steven’s expression fell as he took in the sight of the beach again. It really _was_ a mess, even he had to agree. The trees on the outer edge of the forest were drooping from the weight of their goo-coating. Each ocean wave brought in a new deposit of goo that had landed in the water, and a little goo-covered crab skittered past Steven’s feet frantically. The boy clenched his teeth and looked up at Pearl, a guilty expression on his face. Pearl sighed again and covered her face with her hand.

“Steven… you’ll have to clean this up! We can’t leave this mess lying around, and it’s your responsibility.” Steven’s draw dropped. Surely Pearl didn’t expect him to clean this all up by himself?!

“But, Pearl! Garnet, do I have to?” He looked up to the taller gem with wide, puppy-dog eyes while Pearl hummed in annoyance, glaring at Garnet as if daring her to challenge her punishment. Garnet thought for a moment, unfazed by everyone staring at her. She knelt down and spoke firmly,

“Steven, I know you were just trying to help, and you did take down the monster, but you could have seriously damaged the environment here,” As if to emphasize her point, the crab crawled back into view, dragging a sizable clump of goo in its wake, “It is your responsibility to fix your mistake. I know you can find a way to clean the island by yourself.” Pearl crossed her arms, looking smug, and Steven bit his lip anxiously.

“Okay… I won’t let you down!”

\--3 HOURS LATER--

“Ugh, this is the _worst_!” Steven flopped onto the sand, his chest heaving from exertion as he took a much-needed break. His first attempts at cleaning the beach had been largely unsuccessful; the goo stuck to the sand, which made it very heavy and hard to shovel. Scooping it up in a bucket worked for a while, until the cheap, plastic tool cracked under the weight and eventually broke. Steven had even tried using his hands, which was a disaster. It took him a solid ten minutes just to scrub off the goo caked between his fingers.

His latest idea was the best one yet, which wasn’t really saying much since the other ideas were such dismal failures. While he was washing his hands after the last attempt, Steven had remembered something he’d seen once in his dad’s storage unit. It was like a big vacuum, with a long nozzle and a bag that went on the user’s back like a backpack. It was way too big on Steven, but his dad had let him borrow it anyway.

His dad had said that the machine was supposed to be used for sucking up leaves, but Steven found that it worked alright on magical, gem-interfering goo, too. The problem was that the nozzle had to be cleaned out periodically, since the goo tended to stick to the inside and get clogged up. The bag filled up pretty quick, too, but even so, the goo-sucking method was still much faster than hauling the bucket back and forth.

Steven raised his head from the sand to survey his progress. If he was being honest, it didn’t look like he’d made much of a difference at all. The sand was still covered with patches of green, and he hadn’t even touched the goo-coated trees yet. He groaned and dropped his head back to the ground, considering taking a little nap before getting back to work.

“Hey Steven! You dead or something?” Steven yelled and shot up, banging heads with the purple figure looming over him as he did so.

“Amethyst! That hurt!” He rubbed his forehead, but couldn’t stop himself from smiling. He was bored of cleaning up the beach, it couldn’t hurt to take a break and play with Amethyst, right?

“Psh, baby!” Amethyst teased, then jumped out of reach when Steven swatted at her. Knowing an opportunity for a game when she saw one, Amethyst reached behind herself and stealthily grabbed a fistful of goo. But, at the same time, Steven reached for his trusty vacuum. He flicked it on just as Amethyst threw the goo at him, and the vacuum sucked up the gross green stuff before it could do any damage.

“Ha!” Steven called out with glee as he hoisted the recently-emptied vacuum onto his back. “You can never defeat me! I am the, uh... vacuum… man!” So it wasn’t the best superhero name, but Steven had no time to think of a better one since Amethyst was already winding up for another throw. Steven let out an undignified squeak as three rapid-fire goo-balls flew towards him, only just getting sucked up by the vacuum before they could hit him in the face. Amethyst cackled, looking even more maniacal than usual with her hands covered in sticky goo.

“Better run, vacuum-man!” She scooped up an armful of goo, and Steven didn’t need any more incentive to book it. He took off, dodging increasingly large goo-projectiles before diving into the jungle. It was difficult to maneuver through the trees with a big vacuum strapped to his back, but after a lot of crashing through the underbrush and tripping on roots, Steven managed to make it to the clearing that contained the warp pad. He’d been so caught up in running that he hadn’t noticed that Amethyst wasn’t on his heels, but now that he was alone, the jungle seemed suspiciously quiet.

A bird squawked loudly overhead, and Steven jumped. He laughed nervously at himself, his head swinging around wildly as he looked for any signs of movement.

“Amethyst?” He called out, clutching the vacuum nozzle to his chest. “Amethyst, come out!” There was a rustle from the trees to his left, and Steven swung the vacuum around defensively. He backed away, staring at the spot, when suddenly he saw a flash of purple flying towards him out of the corner of his eye.

Steven yelped in surprise, spun around, and, while he was turning, accidentally hit a button on the vacuum that he hadn’t known existed. Instead of sucking _in_ air, the vacuum started spewing things _out_ , and all of that goo Amethyst had thrown at him earlier suddenly came exploding back out at her.

She grunted as the goo hit her straight in the chest, getting her gem covered for the second time that day. Unable to control the flailing vacuum nozzle, Steven found himself being flung around in tight circles, barely managing to keep his feet on the ground. He was at the mercy of the vacuum until, as quick as it had started, the explosion of goo stopped. The device had run out of goo to throw, and made an awful chugging sound as it tried to spit out nothing. Steven stumbled around, dizzy, and finally fell on his face with a loud “SPLAT!”

There was silence for a moment, before Amethyst came to her senses and crawled over to Steven. She took the vacuum off of his back and flipped him over so that his face was no longer smothered in a pile of goo. Steven spat out some foul-tasting goo while Amethyst wiped his eyes with a clean patch of her shirt. Once he could see again, Steven had expected to see Amethyst laughing at their antics. However, the purple gem looked uncharacteristically concerned, biting her lip with a frown on her face.

“You okay, vacuum-man?” Amethyst asked, rubbing at the goo on Steven’s cheek absentmindedly. Steven nodded,

“Mhmm! M’fine! Why d’ya ‘ook all sad?” With a sizable amount of goo sticking his teeth together, it was a bit difficult for Steven to speak. But he got his point across, and Amethyst merely pointed to the warp pad behind her. Steven sat up straighter and peered over her shoulder. The warp was covered in green, just like everything else in the clearing, but he didn’t understand why this was such a big deal. “Wassa prob’em?” 

“Uh, well, aside from the warp pad being broke, nothing!” When Steven still looked confused, Amethyst threw her head back and groaned, exclaiming loudly, “The goo interferes with our gem stuff! There’s no way that thing’ll ever work again!” Behind her, the warp pad let out a dramatic hissing sound, only reinforcing Amethyst’s point. She made to face-palm herself, stopped when she saw her palms were full of goo, and threw her hands up instead, “Garnet and Pearl are gonna be SO mad!” While Amethyst was freaking out, Steven managed to heave himself out of his goo puddle. He crawled over to the warp pad and poked it cautiously.

“YeeEEEEP!” A strong electrical current zapped him. His limbs seized up and his hair stood on end. “I’m okay!” Steven said, reflexively, even though his fingers still felt tingly. “Hey, the good news is, I screamed so loud that my teeth came unstuck!” He grinned widely and spread out his arms, hoping to cheer Amethyst up. It worked… well, kind of. The purple gem snorted and rolled her eyes, but still looked downcast.

“Listen, Steven… I’m gonna have to go get Garnet and Pearl, but I’ll have to swim because I don’t think THAT thing,” the warp pad buzzed quietly in the background, “is gonna take me.” Steven’s face lit up,

“Oh my gosh! Can you shapeshift into a giant whale and let me ride on your back?” Amethyst scratched her arm and refused to meet Steven’s eyes.

“Uh, well, the thing is… I can’t shapeshift very well with this gunk covering my gem, and cleaning it off will take too long, so… I’m gonna have to leave you here while I go get help.” She looked up at him, smiling sheepishly, “Think you can handle it, little man?” Amethyst was trying to put a positive spin on the situation by making it into a challenge, but Steven wasn’t dumb. He knew how far away Beach City was, and that it would take forever for Amethyst to swim there without shapeshifting.

“Aw, what? I’ve been stuck here all day! Now you’re just gonna leave me?” Amethyst cringed, and a small, vindictive part of Steven felt glad.

“Hey, I’m sorry, guy, but I’m not seein’ a lot of options here. I’ll make it up to you; when we get home, I’ll watch as many of your dumb cartoons with you as you want. ‘Kay?” Steven deflated, his shoulders slumping and eyelids sagging. He wiped his nose, which only served to smear around the goo that was stuck to it.

“It’s okay. Just… hurry? Please?” Amethyst gave him an over-enthusiastic thumbs-up.

“You got it! I’ll be back before you know it!”

\--ANOTHER 3 HOURS LATER--

“I changed my mind, _this_ is the worst.” Steven hugged his knees as he sat on the beach, watching the sun go down. He’d managed to make more progress on the beach clean-up after Amethyst left, but he’d barely finished cleaning up the warp pad clearing when the leaf-sucker sucked its last clump of goo before running out of battery life. Since then, he’d tried building sandcastles with his broken bucket, playing tic-tac-toe with himself in the sand, and making friends with the crabs, but nothing had held his attention for long. Steven was tired, cranky, and he just wanted to fall into his bed and sleep for a thousand years.

Despite this, though, he wasn’t sure if he even wanted the gems to come and get him. His stomach fluttered with anxiety at the thought of seeing Pearl. She was gonna be _so_ mad at him for destroying the warp pad, and she’d have the whole trip across the ocean to stew about it. If she’d made him clean up all of Mask Island just for killing a gem monster the wrong way, what kind of punishment would she come up with for this?

It seemed he was about to find out, since Steven could just make out the glittering sails of the Gem Sloop on the horizon. He stood up and waited, trying to make himself look as innocent as possible as the gems approached. However, to his surprise and immense relief, Pearl wasn’t on the boat. Neither was Amethyst. Garnet hopped off of the sailboat, alone, and dragged it partway onto the beach to keep it from floating away. Steven ran up to her, but skidded to a halt a few yards away. As usual, it was difficult to read Garnet’s expression, so Steven couldn’t tell just how upset the fusion might have been with him. He waited, swaying back and forth on his feet, for Garnet to finish securing the Sloop. When she was done, Garnet turned, considered Steven from behind her visor, and held out her arms.

“Come ‘ere.” Steven didn’t need to be told twice. He barrelled towards her and leapt into her arms with a force that would’ve knocked any human off of their feet. Not Garnet, though. She merely settled Steven into a comfortable position on her hip and ruffled his hair fondly with her free hand. “You have goo all over your face.” Steven yawned, suddenly exhausted, and face-planted onto Garnet’s shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s really hard to get off once it dries.” Garnet merely hummed in response and, instead of getting back onto the boat, she sat down on the sand with Steven still in her arms. The boy groaned in spite of himself, sensing that he was going to get lectured after all.

“Steven, don’t be like that,” Garnet warned, “we need to talk about what happened. The warp pad was irreplaceable, it would take better equipment than we have on Earth to fix it.” Reluctantly, Steven pried his face off of Garnet’s shoulder and allowed her to set him on her thigh instead. He picked at some of the gunk stuck to his eyelid as hs spoke,

“I know, I’m sorry. Amethyst and I were horsing around and I accidentally got goo all over the warp pad. I shouldn’t have been goofing off, but I had to take a break! I know I messed up with the goo monster, but cleaning up the beach was too hard and I was too weak to do it by myself and-” Garnet saw that Steven was irritating the skin around his eye with all of the picking, so she gently grabbed his hand and pulled it away from his face. This effectively silenced Steven, who bit his lip anxiously.

“You’re right, Steven, you shouldn’t have been goofing off. But it was wrong of Pearl and I to make you clean up the island by yourself. We were trying to teach you to take responsibility for your actions, but this was too big of a job for us to make you do on your own. Remember what you said this morning? It’s okay to need help, sometimes.” This brought a smile to Steven’s face, and Garnet grinned back. “Tomorrow, we’ll all come back here and finish cleaning this mess up, together. We’ll have to make some improvements to the Sloop, too. Now that we can’t use the warp pad, we’ll need a faster way to get here. Think you can help us with that?” Steven nodded eagerly,

“Yes, Garnet!” She chuckled at the sight of Steven, wide-eyed with enthusiasm and absolutely covered in neon green.

“Good,” The gem stood up, taking the boy with her, “then let’s get you home.” She tossed Steven up onto the boat effortlessly, where he landed with a _thump_. Before he knew what was happening, Steven felt the Sloop slide into the water and wobble threateningly as Garnet jumped gracefully onto it. The wind took the sails and the boat sped off toward the darkening horizon, the leaf-sucker lying forgotten on the goo-covered beach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm not the first person to make this connection, but...
> 
> In this chapter: parenting styles  
> Pearl - Authoritarian (have strict rules, punish child by withdrawing affection. Makes for kids who are anxious and have low self-esteem)  
> Amethyst - Permissive (act more like a friend than a parent, use bribery to get children to behave. Makes for kids who are demanding and lack self-discipline)  
> Garnet - Authoritative (firm, but affectionate. Makes for kids who are better problem solvers and have better emotional health)
> 
> Trying to fit all that in one chapter was pretty difficult, so if Steven seems a little out of character at times that's probably why. Also, I should mention that no one person ever has just one parenting style; typcially people fluctuate between them when put in different situations. So I'm not trying to hate on Pearl and Amethyst, just that, in general, those are their main styles of parenting.


End file.
